(Headline USA) California Gov. Gavin Newsom threw Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris under the bus this week, saying he did not believe the incumbent vice president was this race’s “underdog” despite her campaign’s attempts to portray her that way.
Newsom made the comment during an interview with CBS News on Tuesday ahead of the debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump.
“I don’t know what it is about Democrats—there’s a timidity,” Newsom said.
“The stock market hits record-breaking, but we are like ‘Well, not everyone’s in the stock market,’” he continued. “How about some pride? How about standing tall for your accomplishments?”
Newsom also threw a jab at Harris’s refusal to sit down with the press on a regular basis.
“That’s up to the campaign. I’m not here to advise in that respect. I think absolutely she should do that, but that’s up to her,” he remarked.
Harris has yet to do a solo sit-down interview with the media since launching her presidential campaign this summer. She also has not held a formal press conference.
Newsom rose up the ranks with Harris as mayor of San Francisco and California lieutenant governor when she was, respectively, the city’s district attorney and state attorney general. But despite their parallel career tracks and shared political values, they are not believed to have been especially close.
Newsom also was understood to have been waiting in the wings for President Joe Biden to exit the 2024 race, and was even accused of running a shadow campaign. However, Biden’s endorsement of Harris thwarted any hope he had of entering the race.
Although he agreed to stay on as a campaign surrogate for Harris, he has been far less active on the campaign trail since the switch.
It could be that Newsom is choosing to distance himself from Harris, especially if he expects her to lose against Trump in November, so that he can launch his own bid in 2028. Or, Harris could be preemptively sidelining Newsom for fear of his presidential ambitions.
After all, Harris reportedly passed over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for her vice presidential pick because she worried that Shapiro would want to run for the White House himself in 2028.
When asked this summer about his diminished role in the Harris campaign, Newsom said, “At the end of the day it will be swing states that will be determinative, and if I can fill a void that others can’t, then I’ll be there,” he said.
